Darkness Consumes
by 23blenders
Summary: Pit comes across a strange creature in an abandoned house on the overworld. It changes his life, in a horribly literal way. A fic for halloween.


Pit peered through some brush, a look of focus on his face. He and his twin were 'exploring'- or rather, Pit was exploring, Dart was lounging and calling out sarcastic encouragement.

Palutena had deposited the boys on the overworld earlier with lunch while she and Viridi spent some time together. The fact that she had kicked them out indicated that probably they'd be tempted to crash the 'party' and she pre-empted this by getting rid of them.

So they were out here with nothing to do for who knows how long. They'd long ago finished their food and even dozed for awhile on the grass. Pit was bored now.

"Don't go too far, you moron. You'll get lost." Dart scolded, not really wanting to get up. But Pit ignored him and disappeared into the trees, prompting him to sigh and stand. He didn't like to let Pit out of his sight.

"Fine, wait up."

"I knew you'd see things my way!" Pit's obnoxiously smug voice sounded, and he stopped and waited for his brother to catch up.

"What's wrong with just staying there? Everything was fine before." Dart grumbled, having located the light angel.

"I. Am. BORED."

"Never satisfied, are you?"

Pit ignored him and kept moving.

"Do you even know where you're going, Pit?" he asked irritably, ducking under a branch.

"Nope!" came the cheerful answer. Dart groaned loudly.

"Then _why_ are we out here?!"

"Because we're explorers! Maybe we'll uncover an ancient ruin or something!"

Dart stopped and facepalmed, leaning heavily against a tree. He couldn't believe how _childish_ his twin could be sometimes.

"There are no ruins here, you dipshit!" he yelled ahead. "And I'm staying here! I'm done with this idiocy! You can just come find me when you're done!"

He sat down and crossed his arms as Pit stopped and looked back. Dart wasn't bluffing, it seemed. He was looking stubborn as ever.

"Pleeease?" he tried. No answer.

"Pretty pleeeease?"

No dice.

He took a few steps, then rustled around and yelled.

"Owwwww that hurt! Why is there a hole here anyway? I'm stuck here!"

He smirked as his brother came to help him.

"See, you moron, this is why we should have stayed out there. You better be able to walk, you little-"

He stopped and stared, slowly comprehending what had just happened. Pit was leaning lazily against a tree, twirling his laurel wreath on a finger and looking smug.

Pit was slightly worried about Dart's calm demeanor following his discovery. It couldn't mean anything good for Pit.

After a few seconds, Dart grabbed him and shoved him harshly into the tree. He punched Pit in the gut and arms a few times, then shoved him to the ground. The dark angel stalked off, bristling with anger.

"Alright alright. Sorry man, just wanted you to come along." Pit yelled, wincing as he stood and brushing himself off.

"So you pretended to get hurt?!" came the furious reply.

"You were being so stubborn!"

"_You_ were being- oh." Dart stopped and forgot about yelling at Pit.

"I even said please, and you wouldn't- what's wrong?" Pit also forgot about yelling. Dart was staring intently through a gap in the brush, tilting his head. Pit leaned over to look too.

Then he smiled.

"See! Ruins! I told you we'd find something here! Let's go check it out."

Pit sprinted to what appeared to be an abandoned house.

"I wouldn't call that ruins… it's just a collapsed house."

"Right. A ruined house."

"Dude, I think ruins means something more… you know what, never mind. Congrats, Pit. You found ruins."

Pit was already in the warped doorway looking in.

"I wish we had something that made light. Although the holes in the roof do let some light in."

"Hey, move over I wanna see."

They scuffled a bit as Dart shoved his way in ahead of Pit.

"Isn't it cool?" Pit enthused, ducking under a fallen beam. Dart was grinning despite his earlier grouchiness.

"When are abandoned, collapsed buildings _not_ cool?" he asked rhetorically as he picked up a rusted and bent metal pot.

"Hey, lookit! I found a lamp! Too bad it has no oil though."

Pit's face poked into the room and he showed off a cracked oil lamp. Dart looked at it, then brought the pot he was holding down on it and shattered the glass.

"Heeeey." Pit whined as the darker twin laughed. Breaking things is fun, and he looked around to see if there was any more glass to shatter. He found a few canning jars and threw them.

"Let me have one." Pit requested, and Dart handed him one. He threw it, and startled a rat with the sound.

"Oh, watch out Dart. There's animals in here." Pit warned.

"I can take them."

Pit rolled his eyes and entered the next room, having run out of jars to throw. Here, he found a cloudy mirror with a few large cracks across the surface.

"Hey, you found another thing to break!" Dart enthused, preparing to throw a rock at it.

"No, you moron! Don't you know anything about superstition? Breaking a mirror is seven years' bad luck!"

"Looks like you already got the bad luck of a lifetime. Unless I drop dead the day I turn seven years old, that is."

Pit smirked at him a little, then moved on. Dart shrugged and went through a different door. For awhile, they rummaged and occasionally shouted about finding some object of interest or another, like a fork or clothing that was falling apart at the seams. Too bad neither had pockets to take any of their treasures home. Dart broke the silence once by chasing a squirrel out, but for the most part they were focused on exploring. It wasn't until Pit disturbed the structure and nearly had the roof fall on him that they decided it was time to leave.

On his way out, Pit stopped at the mirror and gazed idly into it, trying to make out the room behind him. He frowned. Although he knew it was dirty, he still felt he ought to be able to see more and leaned closer as he tried to see into the blackness behind him. There was stuff at the edges, but apparently the middle part was covered in shadow. He thought he could make out some spots in the shadowy part, and wanted to see what they were.

The spots, which were the same size and level with each other, flickered. Then suddenly, Pit saw the blackness move with a series of clicking sounds and a soft hiss. He blinked, confused. The shadow and the spots were gone. In the part that he previously couldn't see was a dusty old dresser with an ancient doily hanging off of it.

Pit turned around, and confirmed that it wasn't shadowy at all behind him. He stood there, confused for several seconds. Something moved in the next room and he gasped and looked.

For a split second, Pit saw something large and black at the edge of the doorway. It stared at him with slightly reflective eyes, then vanished with the same clicking noise as before, the noise an insect might make.

His breath trembled slightly.

"Dart?! Dart! Look out, there's some huge bug thing coming out to you!"

He started scrambling to the doorway as he shouted.

"What are you talking about, Pit? There's nothing here."

"I saw it, it hissed at me!"

He burst out of the tilted doorway and looked around frantically- but only saw his brother waiting for him.

"You sure you saw something, Pit? I didn't see or hear anything."

"Um-yeah, it was in that bedroom with the mirror…"

Both were silent for a moment.

"Well, let's go anyway. I don't know if Palutena can find us out here, we should get back to the clearing."

Pit agreed, wanting to get away from the place and its infestation of humungous bugs.

At first, he was relieved to lose sight of the house. Then something moved at the edge of his vision.

He whipped his head around, but saw nothing. This happened a few more times before Dart frowned and asked if he was ok. Pit shook his head and said he was fine, but he wasn't all that sure about that. He could swear he was seeing something- not exactly following them, for it sometimes showed up in front of them.

Weirdest of all, Dart never saw it. Pit began to wonder if he inhaled something that was making him hallucinate. He was very glad to get to the field, for he could get away from the trese and perhaps stop seeing things hiding behind them.

He saw nothing, but as they sat quietly in the grass Pit heard an unmistakable clicking from behind him.

And again, nothing was behind him and Dart saw and heard nothing.

He was quiet and tense for the rest of the day, worrying his twin. Although after awhile, Pit relaxed; for once he was back in Skyworld, he stopped seeing the dark thing. He was glad to know that being beamed back into the clouds had gotten rid of it and by the time dinner had arrived, he had forgotten about the creature.

* * *

><p>Pit's eyelids flew open. He was lying on his bed, in his darkened bedroom. The windows showed no sign of dawn, so it was still the dead of night.<p>

Pit didn't know what had wakened him. He yawned, rolling over to face the rest of his room, and prepared to fall back asleep.

Then he heard it.

Under his bed.

Clicking. A soft hiss. Pit's breathing hitched.

Slowly, without turning towards him, the large shadow from earlier emerged. Moonlight reflected off of a hard, segmented shell as it skittered across the room and opened his door. Within a few seconds, it was gone. Pit might have believed that it was a dream, but… it hadn't closed the door.

He whimpered, and buried his face in his pillows to try to banish the vision from his mind. Maybe he'd left the door open. It had happened before, although not often. It was habit for him to close his door. It had to happen sometime though, and apparently this was one such night.

And that was quite a vivid dream. He'd have to tell Dart about this one.

Then again, Dart would probably use it to creep him out in the following days. He'd best keep it to himself.

Then he froze. The tiny, rapid clicks were back. The thing was coming back, and Pit could hear a dragging sound. Scraping, rustling. It got closer, and stopped. Pit was too afraid to look up. Sure enough, he heard it come in his open doorway and then the click of the catch in his door.

Pit heard a crunching sound, with some slurping and more rustling. It startled him into looking.

He almost laughed. What he saw made him certain that this was just a strange dream.

There was a freaking _shrub_ in his room. He could only see the broken reflection of the moon off whatever came out from under his bed, but the bush was clear enough. It was on its side and looked like it had just been ripped from the ground.

It was preposterous; so Pit could rest easy knowing it was the messed-up product of his own imagination.

After the thing was done with its, um, meal it creeped Pit out by crawling back under his bed.

Despite knowing it was a dream, Pit couldn't bring himself to even get out of bed. He just buried his face in the blankets and went back to 'sleep'.

The next morning, Pit was sure everything was back to normal. He smiled to hear centurions out and about, and leapt out of his bed. Just to spite the dream he'd had, he boldly checked under the bed. Nothing there. No leaves on the floor to show anything had been brought to his room last night. All was well as he woke his brother up by grabbing his ankles and dragging him down the hallway.

Dart cussed him out, as usual.

Later though, as the pair left the temple, Pit noticed something odd.

"Hey, did the centurions have a mishap or something over there?"

Dart looked where Pit was pointing, but saw nothing out of place.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's a gap in that line of bushes. Maybe Lady Palutena didn't like the look of it?"

The dark angel turned and raised an eyebrow.

"There's always been a gap there. Are you seriously just noticing that now, Pit?"

"What are you talking about! There was another bush there yesterday."

"No, there really wasn't. I think you just don't pay attention and only just noticed this now."

"Lady Palutena will back me up." Pit insisted confidently, crossing his arms.

But when he asked her later…

"No, Dart's right. That one died a long time ago, and I had it taken out. I just never got around to finding another to replace it with. Maybe we could ask Viridi for one?"

"But-" Pit was just confused now, but what was there to do? He must have just paid it no mind before.

"Alright then. I guess I just didn't notice that before."

He felt like that was a lie, but all the evidence pointed to the contrary- so he pushed his doubts away as they consulted with Viridi to find something to plant there.

* * *

><p>Pit awoke again in the darkness. This time, he was less surprised to hear the clicking, with the dream-creature carrying out the same set of movements and this time bringing back- a rock.<p>

Not an insignificant rock either. This could almost be called a boulder.

He heard the snapping and cracking of the rock as the thing ate its new prize, and the pattering of the gravel that escaped the thing's mouth. He wondered if the rock tasted good. It must have, for after the rock was gone he heard it licking up the stray bits of rock from the floor.

Then took its place again under his bed.

Pit was less scared now, for although he'd had this dream twice this bug-like thing had never paid him any heed. It left, came back with a plant and then a rock, ate it on his floor, and hid again.

And sure enough, there was no sign in his room of anything amiss. And Pit noticed nothing off during the day either, although he reflected that that didn't mean much. There were rocks around, but unlike the shrub they weren't arranged in a pattern for him to notice the disruption of. So there may or may not have been a rock missing; Pit didn't know.

The next night, it brought back a marble pillar.

Pit gasped quietly, wondering where that had come from. It was long enough that the creature couldn't fit it into his room, and ate it from one end. Eventually, the other end made it though the doorway and as always, the thing left nothing on its 'plate'.

Come morning, Pit behaved as if nothing was wrong, but he was unusually reluctant to leave the temple.

Dart could see no reason for this, and so Pit walked outside with him. He stopped and his jaw dropped.

One of the pillars was missing from the front of the temple.

"When did that happen?" he asked, forgetting for a moment his suspicions that nobody else would notice. He was quickly reminded though.

"It's been like that since I got here, Pit. You know that. Palutena tole me it happened when the Chaos Kin had control." Dart answered impatiently. "C'mon, let's go."

"But- won't the temple be weakened by that?"

"Well, it's been fine this whole time. What's gotten into you, Pit? First it was that bush the other day, now it's this. It's like you just woke up now instead of when you were in the ring."

Pit shook his head.

"Nevermind. Let's just go." he said quietly. Dart watched him for several moments, noticing that he was upset.

"…You ok there Pit?" he finally asked, confused concern in his voice.

"Yeah, I just… maybe I'm coming down with something. I feel off."

This, at least, was true. Although 'off' wasn't exactly the right word.

"Do you want to go back to bed?"

"No!"

No, the last thing he wanted was to go back to bed. That might make things worse! He grabbed Dart's hand and dragged him away from the temple. Dart was confused and concerned, but Pit refused to say any more and he didn't really seem sick. More like, distracted. He watched his twin closely, but gained no new information from this. He decided not to go to Palutena, although he was tempted to when Pit pushed to stay awake, in his room for as long as he could get away with it.

Of course Pit woke up again. This time, the creature brought back an entire pile of the centurion knights' shields, and ate them one by one.

Pit didn't react at all the next day when Dart 'reminded' Palutena that they needed more equipment, because they'd been short on shields for as long as he could remember.

He felt somewhat numb, knowing he should be scared but not sure what he should- or could do. Or, indeed, what was even happening. Was he going mad? He didn't know. Not a single person remembered the same things he did.

For a few nights, the thing came back with its usual, run of the mill meals. One of them actually caused a partial collapse in one of the hot spring buildings, because it took a supporting pillar. Of course, the rest wrote it off as 'we've been waiting for that to fall, the support's been gone so long'. And of course, Lady Palutena took a moment to berate herself for not having fixed it sooner.

One night, when Pit was almost unalarmed by his nighttime visitor, it came back with something decidedly… different.

He was horrified to see a snoring centurion in the bug's grasp. He was frozen in horror for a few seconds, then tried to get up-

Only to realize he was actually frozen. For some reason, he couldn't move- couldn't rescue the centurion who snoozed away as the powerful jaws of the hungry creature crunched wetly into it. Not a sound escaped, no screams, not even a whimper. The snores cut off when a chunk came out of his lungs and all was silent, save for the ripping sounds.

Pit was shocked and terrified. One of his men- dead, right in front of his own eyes. And he himself, powerless to stop it!

He was ashamed of himself, and decided to tell his goddess and his twin what was happening the very next day, at the risk of being labeled crazy. He didn't care, this thing had killed someone!

This time, he had some trouble getting back to sleep, although he hardly knew whether to assume he was awake or not.

He also didn't really care, he just wanted it to stop.

Pit was unsurprised to find no evidence that a living thing had been brought to his room; not a trace of blood on the floor. Nothing under his bed either.

At breakfast, he did not get the response he was hoping for, and kind of regretted saying anything. It was hard to convince himself that even if it didn't work, he was still doing the right thing by telling.

After he finished his tale, Dart and Palutena exchanged concerned looks. Palutena promised to count the centurions, but Pit told her she wouldn't find anything amiss. She didn't. She did feel a hint of uneasiness when he mentioned the building that had collapsed the other day; she didn't honestly feel like she would have let such a danger remain in her realm. But at the same time, she remembered having seen it for months beforehand, and nothing backed up Pit's claims.

And now, she and Dart were worried for him. His distress was obvious, so he believed what he was saying. Dart could attest to his odd behavior the past two weeks or so.

Pit was greatly discouraged, and avoided talking to either of them for the rest of the day.

That night, another centurion ended up as the bug's meal, this time a strongarm. It too stayed asleep as it was being eaten and all Pit could do was silently cry.

The next day, he was completely withdrawn. He felt so alone; nobody believed him, and they all thought he was delusional. Dart offered to sleep in Pit's room with him, or vice versa but Pit refused, not wanting Dart to be afflicted with the same horror he was experiencing.

However, the bug did something new the next night. Something worse than even the centurions.

It brought back a leg. A severed leg. And Pit was horribly aware, with pajamas that looked very like his own, that it belonged to his twin. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't move. He could only listen to the crunch of bone, the dripping of blood as it consumed the limb.

Pit was paralyzed until the morning.

He could hardly contain his despair when he went to wake Dart up, and he had a crutch next to his bed.

"Pit, you know I don't want help getting up. It's bad enough without people acting like I can't do anything myself." Dart grunted upon awakening, a bitterness to his tone. Pit could have cried, and in fact barely contained himself.

"And stop crying over me, it makes me want to throw things at you!" Dart barked upon seeing his face.

Pit fled from his brother. He spent the day hiding in the shadows; he hated himself for deliberately finding a spot where he knew Dart, with only one leg, couldn't reach him.

His heart ached when he heard his twin calling to him, apologizing for yelling, but he still couldn't bring himself to go to him.

That night, Dart was feeling like shit for making Pit run away, and Pit was scared sick of what would happen tonight. He did go to his twin, and tried to make the best of the situation.

But he found that Dart didn't remember any of Pit's strange behavior; in fact, since he'd 'lost his leg to the Chaos Kin in the Vortex', they hadn't even visited that collapsed house. They'd hung around in that field all day, because Dart couldn't make it through the brush in the forest.

Pit went back to his room and cried again. He was breaking down and he knew it. He tried not to fall asleep, but he dropped off with a speed that suggested that he had no choice in the matter.

That night, the tears started again when the creature dragged Dart's sleeping form into the room. His face looked calm as ever as his other leg was bitten off. He even rolled over a bit in his sleep and brushed a tuft of black hair away from his face, right before his hand was severed. The tuft fell back into place, and Dart unconsciously tried to move it again.

He just smeared blood all over his face.

Of course, Pit put everything he had into leaving the bed, or screaming, but to no avail. He heard his brother's final breath, and saw when the waves of blood stopped gushing.

* * *

><p>He wouldn't leave his room. He didn't want to see Dart's room set up like an unused guest room. He didn't want to ask what had happened to his dark clone. Did the mirror even create him in this universe? Or had he killed Dark Pit the next day, in the ruins? Perhaps his twin had accidentally hurt himself while living alone and died in some forest, quietly and alone.<p>

Palutena came to find out what was wrong with him, but he refused to speak. She wouldn't believe him, and certainly wouldn't understand why he was grieving. And of course, he was dreading going to bed tonight.

* * *

><p>It was almost anticlimactic. No centurions tonight, not even a rock.<p>

No, the creature had brought back a very small snack indeed, but Pit felt something in him snap when he saw what it was.

It was a long, slender finger. Only one resident of Skyworld had hands that looked like that.

The creature practically swallowed it whole, and was back under Pit's bed in an instant.

* * *

><p>When Palutena came to try to shake him out of his odd depression, Pit saw the missing finger on her hand. It only took a flick of his eyes to confirm its absence, and then he didn't react at all to her ministrations. She had a centurion take him to a hot spring, then back to bed but it did no good. Pit said nothing, wouldn't even focus his eyes on anything. She was beside herself with worry.<p>

When Pit woke up that night, he didn't turn to see the creature. He didn't care what it brought back this time. He tried to just go back to sleep, but then he realized that there was an odd darkness in his vision.

A hiss in his ear made his blood run cold.

* * *

><p>Palutena sipped a cup of tea, feeling slightly embarrassed that she'd let her army get to this state. Without someone who could keep a constant eye on them, they only practiced fighting when she left the temple to go do something. It wasn't their fault, exactly; they needed someone to look after them. She'd waited far too long to acquire a new angel. Perhaps she should devote today to finally creating a new one.<p>

She went to pick up her mug again, but almost dropped it. She frowned. Palutena had learned long ago to get along without her index finger, but the past day or two she kept dropping things and miscalculating because she kept moving as though she still had the missing finger.

As she set the dish in the sink, she saw a flicker at the edge of her vision. She whipped her head around to get a good look, but saw nothing.

She shrugged, and left to start her day's work.


End file.
